Find out which songs Jenn Bennett has picked for her exclusive Night Owls playlist

Here at MP!, we’ve got a thing for playlists to our fave reads. Sure, they say silence is golden, but nothing quite sets the novel’s mood like songs hand-picked by the author.

Now, on ‘Night Owls’ publication day, we suggest you grab your copies and put these songs on immediately – let them seep into your reading and weave themselves throughout Jenn Bennett’s San Francisco. Plus have a read on why Jenn has picked them:

My YA debut is a love story between two teen artists: a girl who geeks out over drawing anatomy and a boy who’s secretly spray-painting giant gold graffiti words across San Francisco. My characters are quirky and have their own individual tastes in art, style, and music, and this playlist reflects a little bit of both of them.

“Kiss Me On the Bus” by The Replacements

Jack and Bex meet on a midnight bus known in San Francisco as the Owl. They’re both sneaking out, but for different reasons, and both trying to figure each other out. In the process, they find they’re wildly attracted to each other, which is something that’s never happened to Bex before. Spoiler alert: no kissing happens on that first bus ride, sorry folks.

“Happy Birthday” by Concrete Blonde

The summer before her final year of high school, Bex turns eighteen. Her mother and older brother take her to an art museum to see a very special diagram of a heart that she’s been wanting to see. Something dramatic happens at the museum (you’ll have to read the book to find out just what that is), but it has to do with Jack, and things go from good to thrilling to I WANT TO KILL THAT BOY, which is pretty much how all good romances should start.

“Wild Woman” by Imelda May

Once Bex gets to know Jack, she finds out that he has a thing for

Rockabilly music, both old and new. Jack would definitely dig Imelda May, and this song in particular, which speaks about a feral urge living under someone’s skin, itching to break free, would remind him of Bex.

“Artificial Nocturne” by Metric

Bex is a little bit damaged by her parents’ divorce, but she’s not completely broken. She’s coping with it the best way she knows how, and this song, to me, reminds me of her.

“I Think I Need a New Heart” by The Magnetic Fields

This is one of those songs that sounds happy, but the lyrics are really heartbreaking. It reminds me of a character on Jack’s side of the fence that I can’t mention by name (spoiler).

“Red Right Ankle” by The Decemberists

This has both nothing and everything to do with Jack and Bex, and I listened to it a lot when I wrote the book. My favorite lyrics is: “Whatever differences our lives have been/We together make a limb.” I think that sums up my protagonists fairly nicely.